Federal judge sentences Florida man for conspiring to firebomb Planned Parenthood clinic
US District Judge Cormac J. Carney sentenced 21-year-old Xavier Batten of Florida to 42 months in prison for conspiring to firebomb a Planned Parenthood clinic, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced in a statement Monday. The events leading to Batten’s sentence transpired in February and March of 2022. According to the DOJ’s statement, Batten [...]
UK's Modern Slavery Response Criticized for Transparency Deficit
To many, the idea of slavery evokes images of shameful policies from centuries past. But today, slavery continues to stain the moral fabric of our global society, emboldened by poor understanding and misinformation. Despite burgeoning political, media, and academic attention, an astonishing transparency deficit persists in the UK, particularly when it comes to the government’s [...]
Georgia’s parliament on Tuesday adopted a controversial law designating civil society organizations that receive funding from abroad as “foreign agents.” The law stipulates that civil society organizations receiving more than 20 percent of their funding from international donors must formally register as foreign agents — a term that evokes images of Cold War-era espionage. The legislative [...]
Authorities in the French South Pacific territory of New Caledonia have decided to ban public gatherings and impose a curfew in the capital city of Nouméa following violent protests against a law project amending the electoral system, according to a statement published on Tuesday. The statement specifies that due to public order problems in Nouméa [...]
Hazaras and Shias: Violence, Discrimination, and Exclusion Under the Taliban
The resurgence of the Taliban poses renewed threats to the Hazaras, characterized by escalated violence, discrimination, and isolation. The Taliban’s early governance involved the abolition of the Shia Personal Status Law, the removal of Ja’fari jurisprudence from the education system, and the dismissal of Shia judges. Notably, the Taliban’s cabinet and supreme court lack Hazara [...]
An attack in Rafah killed a United Nations staff member working there, UN Secretary-General António Guterres announced on Monday. The Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General, Farhan Haq, said that one staff member from the Department of Safety and Security (DSS) had been killed and another injured “when their UN vehicle was struck as they traveled [...]
UN leaders urgently call on Israel to avoid large scale offensive in Rafah
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk reminded world leaders on Sunday that a general assault by Israel in the Gazan city of Rafah “cannot be reconciled with the binding demands of international humanitarian law, or the binding provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ).” Türk’s statement came just a day [...]
The Tunisia Lawyers Council called Sunday for a nationwide strike after police conducted a raid on the headquarters of Tunisia’s bar association and arrested Sonia Dahmani, a prominent critic of the government. The Council announced its intention to organize a protest on May 16 in a press release. It also shared plans to stage boycotts [...]
Students from China and Hong Kong studying abroad fear engaging with ‘sensitive’ or political issues while overseas, according to a report published by Amnesty International on Monday. The report, entitled “On My Campus, I am Afraid” details a campaign of transnational repression felt by Chinese and Hong Kongese nationals studying on campuses across Western Europe [...]
The Philippines on Saturday deployed ships to a disputed area in the South China Sea, where it accused the People’s Republic of China (PRC) of building an “artificial island” amid the two Asian countries’s ongoing conflict over the territory, the office of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said in a statement. “The Philippine Coast Guard (PGC) [...]
